He 's broken every record in the book and won a glut of Olympic and world titles , but even at the age of 40 , Haile Gebrselassie has no intention of resting on his laurels .

`` A day without running is not a good day , '' the Ethiopian athletics legend told CNN 's Human to Hero Series .

`` Running , you continue until you die . ''

Which spells bad news for his fellow competitors , although Gebrselassie does acknowledge he will have to call it quits at some stage .

`` Competition stops somewhere , but when I do n't know , '' he says .

`` What I 'm thinking now , is that I want to break all the Masters records -- over 40 , over 50 , over 60 .

`` I do n't know how long I 'm going to live after this , but I hope the next 100 years ! '' he adds , breaking into his trademark grin .

`` The smiling assassin '' -- as he was once famously dubbed -- has been dispatching his opponents with ruthless efficiency for over two decades and is hugely popular wherever he runs , not least among his dedicated following of Ethiopian fans bedecked in their country 's green , yellow and red .

`` Haile , Haile '' will be the chant as their hero winds up the pace before unleashing his trademark blistering finish to leave rivals trailing .

His longtime Dutch manager Jos Hermens summed it up perfectly : `` His smile makes athletics smile . ''

Throughout his glittering career stretching over two decades , Gebrselassie has proved an impeccable ambassador for track and field .

Despite increasing business commitments , he is finding time to pass on that experience to pass on to the next generation -- acting as a mentor for 14 young athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds for the G4S 4teen program ahead of the London 2012 Olympics .

Those youngsters , who came from around the world , would do well to heed his renowned sportsmanship , because win or lose it was always with that smile on his face .

`` Of course there is disappointment when you lose a race , '' he told CNN .

`` For me , it 's in my character , maybe I can say good character . I am always joyful . ''

Glittering career

Disappointments have proved few and far between since his first competitive race at the age of 14 and while still in his teens he captured a 5,000 / 10,000 meters double at the world junior championships in Seoul .

The next year in 1993 saw Gebrselassie 's senior breakthrough as he claimed the first of four straight 10,000 m world championship titles after a battle royal with Kenyan Moses Tanui in Stuttgart .

His world-record-breaking spree started in 1994 , covering distances from 2,000 m on an indoor track to the full 42 km of the marathon .

Watch : The best long distance runner ever ?

Gebrselassie rates his 5,000 m performance at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich in 1995 as his `` most memorable achievement '' -- he smashed the record of Kenya 's Moses Kiptanui by nearly 11 seconds with a time of 12 minutes 44.39 seconds . `` That was amazing , '' he said .

Metronomically lapping the 400m track at just over four-minute mile pace for over three miles , he says that as he ran the beat of the 1995 hit song `` Scatman -LRB- Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop -RRB- '' kept ringing around his head .

`` It 's nice music , if 's fast written , that 's why I could break a world record , by that music , '' he recalls .

`` I 'm a Scatman ! Dum dum and then you know the timing and at the same time your style changes immediately . ''

Olympic gold

Gebrselassie won his first Olympic gold at Atlanta '96 over his favored 10,000 m distance , just edging out his arch-rival Paul Tergat .

Four years later , in Sydney , he became only the third man in history to retain that title -- the Kenyan again the victim .

`` I won that race nine-hundredths of a second from Paul Tergat . That was really the one still I love to watch . It was a very special moment . ''

By the time the 2004 Olympics came around , the balance of power had shifted to his compatriot Kenenisa Bekele , and Gebreselassie came fifth as he missed out on a hat-trick , but by then he had already turned to road running and marathons .

Olympic gold over the classic distance has eluded him ; he decided against competing in the marathon in Beijing in 2008 because of the air quality , and was controversially left out of the Ethiopian team for the London Games last year .

But over distances from 10 km through half-marathon and the full marathon , the records have tumbled .

Successive wins in the Berlin marathon in 2007 and 2008 each came with world bests , the second of two hours three minutes and 59 seconds -- the first man under the two hours four minute mark .

Scatman rhythm

For the longer distances , he says the Scatman John tune is replaced by the need to set the perfect pace and to keep a close eye on the opposition , often years younger .

`` You are just thinking about your race . Who is next to you , who is behind you , who 's in the race , how fast does he run , what is the way breathes , '' he reveals .

`` When you run a marathon especially , the first 15k they 're perfect , but the things happen after 20k . You can look and see , ` Oh this guy , now he 's getting tired , ' so it 's easy to beat him . ''

Years of disciplined training , getting up at 5 a.m. each morning , have left Gebrselassie a battle-hardened veteran and have helped him in his life outside of track and field .

Watch : Gebrselassie dominates Dubai marathon

Two grueling training sessions are interspersed by a day spent in his office -- he employs over 500 people in range of enterprises based right across Ethiopia .

He is usually in bed by 10 p.m. after spending time with his wife and family -- he has a son and three daughters .

Gebrselassie certainly knew the value of hard work from his formative years , growing up in humble surroundings in the town of Asella in Arsi Province , living nearly 2,500 m above sea level .

One of 10 children , he used to run several kilometers each day to school and back to his family 's small farm .

Early inspiration

Inspired from an early age by the 5,000 / 10,000 Olympic double of great Ethiopian runner Miruts `` The Shifter '' Yifter in the 1980 Moscow Games -- `` I was dreaming to be like him '' -- Gebrselassie acknowledges that his environment was the perfect platform .

`` We live at altitude , we were born in altitude , '' he says .

`` Going to school , helping our parents , fetching water from the river . My training started when I was two . It was part of my life . ''

But Gebrselassie is concerned that the neverending trail of talent from his country , characterized by the likes of Bekele and women 's champion Tirunesh Dibaba , could be under threat from increased affluence -- welcome though that is in a country which has suffered so much .

`` Life is changing a little bit . That 's why it 's very difficult to produce more long-distance runners from Ethiopia , '' he says .

`` The more good things you have , the less athletes you have . You do n't see so much athletes from Addis Ababa -LRB- the capital -RRB- . You do n't see so much athletes from the city , most of our athletes they come from the countryside . ''

With his ambassadorial work , Gebrselassie is doing his best to make sure the conveyor belt of champions continues for a while yet .

Role model

`` It 's important to inspire people . Without a role model it 's not an easy job , '' he says .

`` I 'm teaching everybody how they become successful . One is to be disciplined . Second , commitment or a goal , and third is hard work . ''

He has one key message to his youngsters and the wider public : `` Win for yourself . ''

`` What is that ? Sometimes you know people promise to stop smoking , to stop drinking , to stop taking drugs . But they , after one day or after two days , they can not , which means they 've lost for themselves .

`` I ask people win themselves first , which means you can win anything that you dream , that you plan , what you want . This really is my tip for everyone . ''

Allied to his incredible talent and will to win , Gebrselassie has certainly `` won for himself '' in bundles down the years -- dominating distance running and becoming one of the most recognizable sportsman on the planet .

Judging by his recent performances -- winner of April 's Vienna half-marathon , third in a world-class Manchester 10 km last month and smashing the best for a 40-year-old at the distance -- Gebrselassie will be delighting his fans for a few more years to come as he sticks to his endearing philosophy for life .

@highlight

Running superstar Haile Gebrselassie has broken 27 world records

@highlight

The 40-year-old Ethiopian is still competing in long-distance events

@highlight

Gebrselassie won two Olympic 10,000 m golds before turning to marathons

@highlight

He acts as a mentor for young athletes and has a burgeoning business empire